Janitors Relive Story of Their Struggle

Published: June 18, 2000

LOS ANGELES, June 17—
What kind of movie premiere is held in midafternoon, without a foot of red carpet in sight and with most of the audience wearing the same outfit? A premiere that knows its target audience, most of whom had to get to work by 5:30.

''Bread and Roses,'' a film portraying the local janitors' struggle for labor rights, was screened on Thursday for nearly 250 of the very people who had inspired it. Dressed in bright red ''Justice for Janitors'' T-shirts, the workers arrived in busloads, carrying mops and brooms and shouting their slogan, ''Si se puede!'' (''Yes, it can be done.'')

To enter the theater, they walked passed the high rises of Century City, the complex of office towers and shops where a strike resulted in a riot 10 years ago. It was also here, in April, that another strike brought many of the janitors above-poverty wages and health care benefits for the first time.

''It is so important that this is happening today in Century City,'' said Rocio Saenz, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, which represents 8,500 local janitors. For the organizers, June 15 has become Justice for Janitors Day, in recognition of the organizing efforts that grew out of the clash in 1990.

''Bread and Roses,'' directed by the British filmmaker Ken Loach, features a fictional group of downtown janitors. Many of the janitors at the screening worked as extras in the film, or inspired the screenplay by Paul Laverty, a Scottish-born writer who spent six years following their lives.

The script switches constantly between English and Spanish, and many members of the audience used hand-held translators to help them catch every word. At several points, people in the crowd shouted and laughed when they recognized themselves on the screen, or when the janitors got the better of the building owners.

But other moments struck a less celebratory chord.

''The scene when the supervisor fired some of the workers for organizing, that really hit home for me,'' said Rosa Ayala, who has worked in a building in downtown Los Angeles for 11 years. Mrs. Ayala, who was in the background of several scenes, shook a large plastic baby bottle filled with coins instead of clapping her hands.

''The bottle is a symbol of justice for me because it shows how our money can go to feed our children,'' Mrs. Ayala said.

This preview audience also had no shortage of critics.

''The movie left out big chunks of a lot of the hard work that goes on,'' said Aida Cardenas, who led picket lines in Century City during the recent strike.

For the most part, though, the reception was enthusiastic. Estela Aldana, who has attended strikes ''all over L.A., and in Oakland and San Jose,'' left with a big smile on her face. ''I was in many, many scenes,'' she said proudly.

The janitors' emotional response echoed that of an audience at the Cannes Film Festival last month. There the screening came only weeks after the Los Angeles strike, a coincidence not lost on Tom Ortenberg, co-president of Lions Gate Films, the United States distributor of the film, and a onetime political organizer.

''I've been looking my entire career for a picture like this,'' Mr. Ortenberg said.

Mr. Ortenberg, whose company sponsored the screening along with the Service Employees Union, said that ''Bread and Roses'' was scheduled for a nationwide release in February and that the janitors and other community groups would share in box office receipts.

''There's no other way. We have to give some of the proceeds back to the community,'' he said.

As for the film's message of ''it can be done,'' the producers and filmmakers said they hope to spread the word to an audience much broader than labor unions.

''It's really important that people should believe the film and know the success of your campaign,'' Mr. Loach told the janitors after the film. ''And there's no better way to do that than to have the real people on the screen.''

Photo: Janitors applaud after the Los Angeles premiere of ''Bread and Roses,'' a film about their labor struggles. Many had roles in the movie and cheered their appearances. Others inspired the screenwriter. (Misha Erwitt for The New York Times)